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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Hawks @ Sixers - 3/31/09

This was slated as an old school game recap game, but then we viewed Mike Woodson's post game press conference and decided to just state one more time why the Hawks will be LUCKY to win in the first round (and that is based on having home court advantage SOLELY)...it's not the players, it's Mike Woodson. Let us recount the ways.

Game Recap - Sixers 98, Hawks 85

1. Josh Smith clearly was having a special night. Hitting free throws, 3 pters, 6 dunks - ALL ON THE ROAD, so what do we do down the stretch...go away from Josh. Let's take a moment to hear what Coach Woodson had to say about this..paraphrasing - 'Uh, they were doubling the post anyway, so we needed Joe and Mike to make shots.' Now, I watched the game. How the hell did he know they were doubling the post when they didn't pass it into the post? Let's see - Tony Parker is KILLING us a few weeks ago and when did Popovich stop running said play...uh, NEVER! How hard is it to just run the plays that have been working (which last night were relatively few)...how many coaches have problems with going with the hot hand? REALLY? Answer this for me, someone.

2. Let's ask Coach Woodson about why we lost tonight...'Uh, well we lost because Joe and Mike didn't make shots, oh and Al didn't play well either...oh and finally, we turned the ball over too much. Listen, we can't win if we don't make shots and we go as far as Joe and Mike take us.' WTF!!!!!! Ok, admittedly, some of what Coach Woodson says is true, but we could won this game if we had played tougher defense, took better care of the ball, and uh...played through Josh while he was hot. When Kobe is off, LeBron is off - etc I'm sure their coaches aren't writing off the games. The point here is - we are good enough to win games when Joe isn't making shots. There are several examples this year when Joe hasn't been shooting well, same for Bibby. Here's the difference - you can't do what we did tonight against GOOD b-ball teams. They didn't have Thaddeus or Brand and we didn't see a white flag go up and doubt we would have heard about shooting as the reason for the loss. Play defense, take care of the ball, and stop with the silly sub patterns and maybe we win this game.

3. How depressing is it to watch another young team where their young players actually PLAY. Louis Williams, Thad Young, Speights...and even more - to see that if Royal Ivey (who Coach Woodoson actually used to play at PG) can get minutes, then why not Acie? Seriously...

4. Let this game be a reminder of just how explosively good Josh Smith can be (3pters notwithstanding) - we all complain about Josh and what he does and doesn't do, but let it be clear that we have two talented forwards in Josh and Al. If only they were being used appropriately, it's scary what they can do on a basketball floor.

5. How cool is it to see two posterizations in one game - Lou Williams & Dalembert stand down...

6. And finally, how many times must we hear about energy not being on for a game? My goodness..Atlanta Spirit, Rick Sund. Is there a reason to have a coach or a captain on your team if not to make sure they play hard every night?

Oh and Sixers or Heat in the first round...I'll take the Sixers - that way, if we lose the series...it'll be easier to fire Woodson. No way he gets fired for losing to Wade and the Heat. And at this point, the #1 thing in the way of us making the next leap...(bigger than small forward, bench depth, center, point guard who defends) is coaching. We'll be 47-35.